Google Earth Flight Simulator Tips

The big news over the weekend was the easter egg Google planted in the Google Earth 4.2 beta: a flight simulator mode (more details here). Here are a few flight simulator tips to make your flying better:

Getting started – Look for the menu choice under the Tools menu called Enter Flight Simulator…. Hit the Exit Flight Simuator button, or the ESC key on the keyboard, to leave the simulator mode. There’s also a keyboard shortcut “CTRL-ALT-a” that will start it immediately.

If you’ve entered the flight simulator mode normally, you will see this requester window:

[UPDATE] Here’s a video showing what you can do with the tips found below the video. [UPDATE 2015: New HD video tutorial]

NOTE: The first video clip is flying the SR22 – a slower plane. You won’t be able to take off with the F-16 until you are going much faster (about 300).Keep reading for more tips:

Tips for beginners – You should first read the Help on the startup window, or simply go to this web page to learn the controls for flying.

Start up the flight simulator as described above. I recommend you choose the SR-22 plane to start (it is a much slower plane than the F-16, and will help you learn the controls). Choose any airport, or just the default “Katmandu”. If you don’t have a joystick, you can’t select one. Next hit Start flight.

To get started, hold down the Page Up key briefly (this will add power to your plane). The throttle indicator is on the lower left (triangle should be at the top for full throttle).

To control your direction on the ground, use the comma and period keys on your keyboard to apply left and right brakes. Just touch them briefly to change direction left and right.

Important tip – mouse control – it’s best to use the mouse to control the plane (unless you have a joy stick). I wouldn’t bother with trying to fly with the keyboard. Simply click the mouse once in the center of the view and you should see your cursor change to a “+” sign. Don’t move your cursor outside the window or you will lose control! The mouse will only control your plane in the air, and if the cursor is inside the Google Earth window.

Taking off – Once your plane is going faster down the runway, try moving the mouse back slightly from center. If you’re going fast enough you should take off. Remember: just make small motions with the mouse close to the center of the screen. Once you have the wings level, put the mouse in the center. A lot of first time fliers have a tendency to over correct.

To make a turn – move the mouse slightly to the right or left and when your plane is tilted, pull back slightly. When you’ve made the turn you want, push the mouse back to the center then the other direction to tilt the plane back to level.

Pausing – If you want to stop for a moment, simply hit the SPACE key on the keyboard and it will pause the simulator. Hit SPACE again to resume. You can look around with the CTRL and arrow keys. Re-center your view with the V key.

3D Buildings – [UPDATED 2015] Turn on the 3D Buildings layer before you start the simulator to see the 3D city data.

Start higher – Position your view in Google Earth in the normal mode so you are at least 30,000 feet above ground. Tilt your view so you are looking at the horizon. Then restart the flight simulator mode (use Tools->Enter Flight Simulator…, or the keyboard shortcut CTRL-ALT-A) so you can choose what plane to use, and other options. Choose Select your start position->Current view in the window, and then choose Start flight. You should add power by hitting the Page Up key after starting it up. Now you can practice flying a while before you hit the ground!

Landing – it is possible to land the plane. But, I’ll leave that for advanced tutorials.

Get out there and try flying around! You’ll be amazed to find out how smooth Google Earth can be for exploring the world. I recommend you try areas like the Swiss Alps, the Rocky Mountains of the US, or the New Zealand mountains for some really nice terrain. All of these areas have high resolution terrain available in Google Earth. Don’t forget you can also buy a SpaceNavigator 3D mouse for even better viewing control in Google Earth. The skies are always clear in Google Earth – have fun!

About Frank Taylor

Frank Taylor started the Google Earth Blog in July, 2005 shortly after Google Earth was first released. He has worked with 3D computer graphics and VR for many years and was very impressed with this exciting product. Frank completed a 5.5 year circumnavigation of the earth by sailboat in June 2015 which you can read about at Tahina Expedition, and is a licensed pilot, backpacker, diver, and photographer.

Comments

Not ‘arf, it’s super! I followed the advice and switched from keyboard to mouse and yes, once I’d got used to it it’s much easier! As you say the key is to keep movement to a minimum, stay as close to the plane icon as possible with the crosshairs. And the trick when turning is as you finish, gradually move the mouse back to the centre instead of lurching over, otherwise you’ll induce troublesome roll.
With the mouse I was able to complete my first full flight, takeoff and landing from Manchester to Liverpool. Sadly I missed the runway by about 100m but it was the first time I didn’t bounce 🙂
Coupla tips:
* The look around feature works even in pause mode, so there’s no need to take your hand off the stick to admire the view. Just be careful to remember your original orientation as it’s easy to lose the HUD! (More reason to pause)
* Place pushpins at each end of a runway if you want a realistic landing, they make it easy to pick out the direction even when the images haven’t loaded. Also switch on other points of interest so you can gauge where you are (soon I’ll be printing out maps of the UK and plotting flight plans! I was wondering how GE could get better, now I know)

I tried to use it with a joystick that works fine for Microsoft flight simulator, but the functions for rudder and engine power seem to be swapped. I’m getting tired of constantly twisting the joystick. What now?

Landing is the most fun and the culmination of a great flight… line up with the runway about 10 miles out, slow down and put the flaps and gear down… aim for the runway at about 3 degrees decent… then when you touch down, use the period and comma keys for the brakes… HAVE FUN!!!

hello evryone, some people have trouble starting flight simulator in google earth, on my computer, on the right side of the spacebar, there are three buttons, Alt, something that looks like a thingie, and Ctrl. the combination that worked for me is Ctrl-thingie-A
good luck and enjoy..:)

@Leo – have you tried setting to English US keyboard in Control Panel? French keyboard = AZERTY so you may need to press the key below your A key, which is where A is on an English keyboard (first left, middle row). Once the mode is enabled it appears in Tools menu and you won’t need to change KB again.
Those looking to redefine joystick controls – investigate the ini files in C:\Program Files\Google\Google Earth\res\flightsim\controller
it appears you might be able to change them round but it will take some experimentation. The inis are well commented so it shouldn’t be too hard.

” Place pushpins at each end of a runway if you want a realistic landing, they make it easy to pick out the direction even when the images haven’t loaded.”
Great idea. I thought of that myself but with a little icing on the cake. Under properties for your pushpin, click on the altitude tab and enter something like 1000m(relative to ground) or so at each end of the runway. And to make things even better, name the marker to whatever azimith that end of the runway is pointed to help line up your approach. And for betting visibility, check the box marked, ‘extend to ground’. My biggest problem with this program is finding the airports. By doing the above, it’s now much much easier.

I am hoping someone will find out how to get this simulator to work correctly with my Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 joystick. As it is, the sim seems to be using the “generic.ini” definitions found in Program Files\Google\Google Earth\res\flightsim\controller. The throttle on the stick causes rudder (yaw) in the sim. It should be straightforward to create a custom .ini file for the Sidewinder? Comments?
– Jeff Schallenberg
Saint Lambert, Quebec

If you want to add you preferred airport to the selection list, add a line like this in the flightsim.ini file in section takeoff_locations:
‘LFNM’ ‘Nice’ ’04R’ 43.646877 7.202800 45.00
‘LFMN’ – 4-letter ICAO code (can be anything)
‘Nice’ – city name (can be anything)
’04R’ – runway name (here: right runway in 40deg heading)
lat/lon: – easy to get if you put a placemark on the start position. Copy/paste lat/lon values from the placemark dialog box (set GE to decimal degrees in Tools/Options/3D View)
45.00 – runway heading (and aircraft orientation). Zoom on the runway and turn the image in GE until the runway is parallel to the side of the screen. Select ‘Add Path’, go to ‘View’ tab and select ‘Snapshot’. Copy/paste the heading.
That’s it…

I’ve had my Logitech Extreme 3d Pro working fine the first time I tried the flight simulator, but no I can’t seem to control anything with it. It works fine with all other software and it’s recognized correctly when I start the flight simulator. I even reinstalled GE…same result.
Any ideas why the joystick is recognized but won’t let me control anything?
Any help greatly appreciated!

Hi Martin,
Yes, I have seen that too. It seems to be a minor bug (or rather a hiccup) of GE.
Try this: Launch GE with the joystick plugged. Enter the flight simulator using the key combination (Alt+Ctrl+A or Alt+Windows+A). The joystick should work now. Then exit the FS (Esc) if needed and re-enter using the menu (Tools->Flight Simulator). For me that works.
Let me know if this also solves your problem. If yes, I can file a 4.2beta bug report in the GE group.
Norbert

I have the same experience as Martin 🙁
I had edited the controller .ini file to correct the throttle and rudder axes, and it worked fine on Saturday. But since Sunday, the simulator does not respond to my joystick (Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback 2)m nor to the mouse. Only the keyboard controls work anymore.
Anybody else experiencing this?
– Jeff

Hi Jeff,
Strange. Just a shot in the dark: Do you use a USB mouse and/or other USB devices? Try to disconnect all devices and reconnect only the joystick prior to launching GE.
For the mouse as control device: I believe you know that you need a cross-shaped cursor for the mouse controls to work. If you got a pointer-shaped one, click left once. (Sorry, if this is obvious but just to make sure…)
Norbert

Norbert,
unfortunately your suggestion didn’t work. No matter what I can’t get the joystick to work. The only other USB devices are the mouse/keyboard and I even tried to unplug those….no change.
Any other ideas?
Martin

Like some other people i’m having the same problem with my joystick not being recognised now . Its a Cyborg 3D Rumble force. So suggest there is a fault and it should be reported back to Google earth team – how do we do this ?

To report GE 4.2beta problems, go to Google Groups: Google Earth Help
Add a comment to the post “Found a bug (especially in 4.2)? Let us know!”. Be sure to read the original post as you need to include some essential info to the message to help the Google guys.
A last thing to try: Switch between DirectX and OpenGL (Tools->Options, Graphics Mode) and restart GE. DirectX offers joystick support whereas OpenGL does not. If GE uses DirectX for input devices, this might help but I would not bet on it. However, might be worth a try before giving up.
Norbert

F16: slow to 200kts, full flaps, gear down, keep -5 attitude line on near end of runway – then use SSI _|_ near to far end to flare, Power off when 500′ above ground level on approach. landing speed <190
SR-22: slow to 90kts, follow above.

Landing, I Just done it for the 1st time.
level off at about 1000 ft and drop gear’s so you dont forget.
decrease speed all the way down to the bottom and flaps up 20% slowly drop below 1000ft and as you do watch the speed (LHS) once you hit 300 or less bring flaps up more steadying out as you go.
300ft 100% flaps and still slowly drop. press . and , at the same time to put on brakes on. point a bit down and level off the speed means you will drop .
once you hit the ground ( and you will know because of bounce) just keep holding brakes and you will stop.
HTH (sorry its a bit poor.)
1 question to open i had to do ctrl + windows key + a but i want to change my plane and nothing on the net tells me how to . any ideas?

This is ace!
Only small point of logic that might be fixed via the ini files. If, in mouse mode, I pull back to raise the nose, I would expect the white cross (as a stick position indicator) to rise, not fall. Can this value be reversed locally in an ini file?

4:Brittany Balcom
it’s easy!
You must change two letters in 2 files
in directory
C:\Program Files\Google\GoogleEarth\res\flightsim\keyboard
are 2 files generic.ini(F-16) and sr22.ini
For resolving your problem you must find and overwrite
string ‘9’ -> A -key A throttle up for you
string ‘3’ -> Z -key Z throttle down for you
bye
jandys

I’ve also had the joystick stop working altogether, even though it works in other programs and the Ctrl-Alt-A screen says “joystick enabled”. It came back for me via checking Tools/Options/Navigation/Enable Controller.
Now on to the throttle and rudder reversal problem: editing my controller generic.ini file to reverse the A2 and A3 axes doesn’t change a thing. I even tried commenting out all the A0 > A3 lines and the joystick still works the same. It is being referenced in the flightsim.ini file, and if I try deleting the A0 > A3 lines the program gripes about a misconfigured file – and then the joystick works the same as usual anyway! Anyone have a notion on this one?
tks
steve

Hi Steve,
You do not have by chance a joystick which is one of the preconfigured ones? As far as I see, GE tries to identify the joystick by reading the ID string and matching it against all controller id’s found in the controller\*.ini files in lines like this:
Controller(‘*Logitech*Force*3D*’, 12, 12, 4, 4)
So I suppose your simply need to find the right .ini file for your joystick.
Norbert

a good way too land,
line up with the place you want to land and fly down at about -10%, press page down to lower your throttle to zero (it’s the lower left line) and raise flaps to 100 and lower your gears, then slowly go down and go horizontal when at the bottom, then just wait till the speed goes to zero

Norbert Sept 24 re my controller question of Sept 19:
– I’m using a Thrustmaster Top Gun Fox 2 Pro (!?) USB joystick. Doesn’t seem to be a match for any of the preconfigured .ini files.
– BTW, should the Ctrl-Alt-R trick also reload the controller files on the fly, besides the already-mentioned *planet* and *aircraft* files?
– This is a great start on what I hope becomes a more configurable simulator. For starters, how about a blimp and an external input for the throttle from a stationary bike’s wattmeter – then you can bicycle around up in the sky!

I love Flight Simulator! My altitude is very high and I could change the flight into day and night. I could change into window view. SR22 is my little favorite because it has no gears. F16 has. I could take-off but not really landing. For landing I just opened my gear then full flaps then I land safely sometimes. But there’s one problem. My gear even it was open then straight off to the runway,why does it crash? Maybe because the gear broke it self.

I’ve got the MS Sidewinder precision 2 joystick and had the rudder and throttle transposed. I solved it by labelling the controller folder as “Original Controller” and opening a new “controller” folder. I then dragged the generic.ini file into the new folder and then edited it in “wordpad” as suggested by ‘serge’ above to read:
A3 set(DP_0, -0.5, 0.5)
A2 set(DR, 1.0, 0.0)
I saved it restarted Google earth.
Restared flight sim with “Ctrl+Windows Start+A”
It worked
Now to figure out the buttons!

The way that GE sim uses its .ini file appears to be extremely squirrely. A modified .ini file may or may not be in control. Even the Remove software facility does not work correctly. It was necessary to go through the chain of folders, deleting them one at a time, even after using the Control Panel “Add/Remove software” facility in Windows XP. Originally the flaps button worked fine. Now that I have reloaded GE, the rudder axes works according to the ini assignment, but the flaps function one time and then quit. I think I’ll wait until they get some of the horrendous bugs ironed out.
Allen

Hi. I have just opened the simulator for the first time. I have the screen properly prepared (I think), press the page up key — but nothing happens! PS I have Mac OSX running…… Any suggestions gratefully received. PS 2 I am based in France.

Having used GE to look for Fossett and MTurk, I was wondering if there was a way to combine a view of flying slowly across the landscape (nape of the earth) (like a bird, condor, blimp) and looking down (70-90 degree angle) search for Fossett, hunting, exploring?
The flight mode seems to force a logical view based on the horizon and cruising along with what seems fine control of speed forward and back (though actual ground /air speed seems missing)
but the non-flightsim, allows the ground view but a harder to finely control the ground movement with a mouse, always hands on.

I easily opened the flight simulator in google earth and chose the easy plane, but when it’s open i cant get the plane to move. i can move the throttle arrow up and down and the rudder ect.. but i cant get it moving. What am I doing wrong (btw: i’m using a macbook’s keyboard, this may be the problem) Any suggestions PLEASE!!!

Quoted by ej_world above:”I love Flight Simulator! My altitude is very high and I could change the flight into day and night.”
Night? There’s night in Google Earth??? Certianly he does not mean “City Lights” as I tried to use the Simulator with that Layer activated yet it does not work. If there is a “night feature” I would like to know how to activate it. Thanks!

I too am experiencing trouble having GE function with my MS Sidewinder joystick. For what it’s worth, it does work on my desktop, (XP Pro) but not on my laptop (XP Home). I have confirmed on the laptop that the joystick is recognised by the computer; I calibrated it, and all the functions work during calibration. So, what does this mean? I dunno!
Les

…it appears that the joystick function is either an intermittent function, or there is something causing GE to recognize the joystick or not based on something I’ve (we’ve) yet to identify.
My laptop just recognized it, then on the next run, did not. When starting, if the “joystick” box is checked in GE, then it means that GE knows there is a joystick attached to the computer, or that the device manager has at one point installed a joystick. But what determines whether the joystick functions or not is yet to be discovered by many of us.
None of which makes GE any less spectacular! I may never have to leave my house again; Wow!
Les

You can simulate the night mode by turning off the atmosphere shading (VIEW>ATMOSPHERE). All works fine for me with a CH Products Flightstick Pro but … every time after a minute or so the programme crashes, freezes and I have to close it down and start again. Anyone had the same problem and found a solution?

same problem with CH Products Flight yoke and Rudder Pedals. CH Products told me to turn off Tools\Options\Navigation|Non-mouse Controller\Enable Controller, but the program doesn’t recognized the pedals. If I reenable the controller, the earth spins and the controllers still don’t work.

Does anybody know anymore commands for custom buttons for controllers? Iv moded a couple and moded the speed and all. also does anyone know how to change the default maximum altitude for staring in the air, i cant seem to find it anywhere. my top speed now for the f16 is like 17000 lol.

Did you know that you can take of and “land” on water with the SR22? fantastic:an hydroplane that you can stop on water by breaking. By the way,for those who still having joystic problems try to activate it in the tools,options,navigation. it worked for my logitech extr 3D.

I have one suggestion and one Question if I may.
Suggestion – Would it be possible to add the present Lat/Long to the HUD display of the Flight Simulator? So that the runway could be lined up on the Approach Glide Slope?
Question – I am designing with SketchUp an assist for the Approach Glide Slope. It is a copy of VASI (Visual Approach Slope Indecator).
If the airoplane is on the correct 3% approach slope, a red and white indecator will be seen at the beginning of the runway. If the approach is too high, two white indecators will be seen. If the appoach is too low, two red indecators will be seen. The indecators will be seen up to five miles.
My question is – As I am hoping to put this forward to the Warehouse, would it be legal to copy VASI?
Hope to hear from you in the near future.
Yours truly
Frank Sharlock

For those ho have the sim freeze after a short while, I had the same problem, and I solved it by reducing the memory cache size in Tools/options/cache.
I had 1000, took it down to 600, and all seems fine now.

I am using a Saitek X52, and have successfully remapped the keys to get the brakes on the trigger of the main stick.
By default the main hat switch is used by the instruction
P0 set(HAngle, 1.0, 0.0)
But this only uses the left and right part of the Hat switch to look right and left.
II have not found a way to use the vertical part of the main hat switch to look up and down.
By default the up and down are mapped on the other hat switch (upperleft on the stick). I
reprogrammed this one to look around (up down right left) without coming back to zero.
But I am still interested if someone has figured a way to add the vertical view on the main hat switch.
If anyone is interested I will post the content of the ini file.

I’ve worked out a cool way to figure out where you are when flying long distance/over featureless terrain. Simply read off the location co-ordinates in the bottom left of your flight sim window (point to the ground a little ahead of your flight path) then retype them into earth.google.com in a browser window – hey presto – an accurate reading of where the heck you are! You don’t even need to enter the ‘degrees’ icon, simply type, for example 50 22′ 34 18′. w00t!

I think I’ll wait till you get it working!! My joystick doesn’t work, and the aircraft turns left by itself at an ever increasing angle until it either crashes or stalls and crashes. The scene plays for a few seconds, then stops for s few seconds and so on.

In reference to adding an airport (see pasted message below)in case anyone tries to edit the .ini files in notepad I needed to use edit plus (http://www.editplus.com/download.html -free trial) or another script editor instead and then tell the editor to save it as a unix file. in edit plus this is an option under the documents toolbar heading. Otherwise, if saved in ANSI it is not read in correctly (probably due to how it is delimited). Not sure if other file types will work. also if it helps the path to the file is C:\Program Files\Google\Google Earth\res\flightsim at least if use the default location for GE as i did.
Original message: If you want to add you preferred airport to the selection list, add a line like this in the flightsim.ini file in section takeoff_locations:
‘LFNM’ ‘Nice’ ’04R’ 43.646877 7.202800 45.00
‘LFMN’ – 4-letter ICAO code (can be anything)
‘Nice’ – city name (can be anything)
’04R’ – runway name (here: right runway in 40deg heading)
lat/lon: – easy to get if you put a placemark on the start position. Copy/paste lat/lon values from the placemark dialog box (set GE to decimal degrees in Tools/Options/3D View)
45.00 – runway heading (and aircraft orientation). Zoom on the runway and turn the image in GE until the runway is parallel to the side of the screen. Select ‘Add Path’, go to ‘View’ tab and select ‘Snapshot’. Copy/paste the heading.

Seems GE Flight Simulator supports only USB controllers/joysticks ?
I have a Parallel Port Joystick, and there seems to be no way to get it working, although Windows recognizes it correctly and GE also “knows” the Controller, but there is no reaction by any movement on the controller.
It’s especially sad, as this is a “real” remote control for steering RC models, connected and configured as a “Virtual Joystick”

Hello,
GE is the best thing going in virtual reality! I really enjoy exploring the Earth with all of that eye candy. The problem that I am having is that I have an old Gravis Blackhawk 4 button analog joystick and would really like to use it with GE without having to go out and purchase more peripherials. It is able to run other flight simulators but does not work with GE 🙁 I do not want to have to dig through files and generate lines of code for this problem… is there an easy remidy for this?
Thank you very much for your advice.

Whenever I put out the flaps, it says “FL PS” instead of “FLAPS”. Whenever I go into a stall, it says “ST LL” instead of “STALL”. It didn’t always do this. Also, the button in the top right says “E it flight simulatior” instead of “Exit flight simulatior”. With the fast plane, it won’t tell me if the landing gear is out anymore. What do I do?

Hi,
isn´t there any cool developer on the world who could design an addon for GE-Flightsim to have a real aircraft panel and also some sound, like we have it in FS9 or in FSX by Micrsosoft?
Or alternatively, using the GE Flightsim as a scenery (permanent) in FS9 or FSX?
That would be great….dreaming…:-)
Cheers
Michael

I have been using GE Flight for a few months (broke my foot..spent hours flying). I have a Saitek AV8R joystick which worked great until today. For some reason the program won’t recognize when I enable the joystick and I receive a message stating “google earth has stopped working”. I tried to enable my controller in the options menu and get the same message. The program works fine without the joystick and the joystick works fine with MS Simulator. Any advice??
Thanks
Robert

It is absolutely amazing that no one at Google has fixed the problems with the controller ini. This product has such terrific potential but has existed for a long time now in a terrifically frustrating state.

My thanks to the developers of G/E Flight Simulator. It works perfectly! I am using the mouse as the stick. The simulator performs exactly as one would expect an aircraft to perform. Never piloting an F16, the SR22 flys beautifully. The FAA publishes a great book on the basics of how to fly a generic aircraft. Cirrus publishes an SR22 manual on line. follow the V-speeds for the best performance.

Suggestion for landing the Cirrus SR22 in Google Earth’s Flight Simulator.
Using a bit of VFR and IFR flying you can easily land the SR22 on a specific runway.
Using the map part of GE, mark your airports with a Placemark at the centre and off to the side of the main runway.
(Airport Name, (ICAO), Lo RW HDG-High RW HDG, & Runway Elevation)
Example: “Cork (EICK) 17-35 EL 502”
Initially, fly toward the Placemark.
As you pass over the airport you’ll know the runway directions and elevation.
Fly over the airport maintaining 2000 feet Above Ground Level (AGL) (at Cork, that’s 2500 feet) at ¾ throttle( ~145 MPH) and pick your runway. Selecting RW17 to land on, subtract 30 degrees from the opposite end’s heading (35-3) and fly a heading of 320 for one (1) minute dropping to 1500 feet on the way. Then execute a 2 minute turn to the right. Lining up the horizon with the upper edge of the double up arrow point in the centre of the HUD will get you a 2 minute turn. 210 degrees later you should be lined up with runway 17 at 1000 feet AGL. Kill the throttle and hold the nose up until you drop to 90MPH. Glide to the runway using flaps as needed.
V-Speeds:
• Vso (stall, dirty): 59 kias (109 km/h) (with flaps)
• Vs (stall, clean): 70 kias (130 km/h) (without flaps)
With practice you will conquer the hardest part of flying. You can alternately add 30 degrees to the heading and execute a left turn and get the same result.

I just accidentally found the coolest tool for flight sim. If you create a route in Street Atlas and export as a gpx, when you open it in GE it is useless as a automobile route because it just puts a straight line from point to point in GE. But, this straight line is a perfect flight path for flight sim to use from airport to airport.

To practise landings, it’s useful to have a set starting point. I’ve set up a couple of points at appropriate distances from Heathrow and Paris to start a landing approach and added these to my airport list (see Norbert’s post of 10 September 2007 – extract below).
The simulator places you on the ground, and then you can press G to retract the landing gear (it only works with the F16) and crash. You then get the option to resume the flight at 5000 feet, which is a good starting altitude. It might take a bit of experimenting to find a good starting point. The line I’ve put in the flightsim.ini file for Heathrow is
‘EGLL’ ‘London Practice’ ’27R’ 51.481415 -0.126235 -92.00
Copy of the post on selecting airports: If you want to add you preferred airport to the selection list, add a line like this in the flightsim.ini file in section takeoff_locations:
‘LFNM’ ‘Nice’ ’04R’ 43.646877 7.202800 45.00
‘LFMN’ – 4-letter ICAO code (can be anything)
‘Nice’ – city name (can be anything)
’04R’ – runway name (here: right runway in 40deg heading)
lat/lon: – easy to get if you put a placemark on the start position. Copy/paste lat/lon values from the placemark dialog box (set GE to decimal degrees in Tools/Options/3D View)
45.00 – runway heading (and aircraft orientation). Zoom on the runway and turn the image in GE until the runway is parallel to the side of the screen. Select ‘Add Path’, go to ‘View’ tab and select ‘Snapshot’. Copy/paste the heading.

To land I always make sure that my front wheels (Triangle) are slightly above ZERO, and my back wheels (_|_} are slightly below ZERO. Also, if you want to only slightly turn on the keyboard, on the Number Pad, 0 and Enter (Left and Right) are slight turning methods.

I have the Saitek AV8R-01 joystick and have exactly the same problem that Joe reported on May 3, 2008. GE wants to shut down when I try to use it. Soon as I select my plane and airport it says “GE has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry.”
Did Joe or anyone else find a solution to this problem?

why has no on answered people’s question about the macbooks?
you keep ignoring everyone! must i type in caps to get anyone to pay attention?
PLEASE HELP ME! I HAVE A MACBOOK AND I CAN’T GET THE STUPID PLANE TO MOVE!
i can control it ok in the air, but when i select to start from an airport, i can’t move
i can get the right throttle arrow to move up, but the left arrow won’t budge.
i’ve tried everything, and the up arrow doesn’t do anything
thank you for reading my post and *cough* answering it 😛

I cannot seem to get the F-16 in a landing configuration. It’s a hot aircraft-I don’t seem to be able to get ahead of it. I am a licensed pilot with 250 hours in light aircraft so I do know what I’m doing. I try to set up a ways out and drag it in with power as getting the Vref speed targeted is tough. From what I understand it’s supposed to be between 120-160 kts across the fence. I always end up high, hot and then trying to kill altitude. I go from 50 to 80 to full flaps and seem to be bleeding off the altitude and airspeed nicely but invariably at some point it goes wrong. Pitch stability and speed control seem very sensitive, even in landing. Anyone got experience landing the F-16?

To start off, let me say that i have spent many hours (probably too many) flying google flight sim. I have experience with both airplanes and have made cross continental and cross oceanic flights using the f 16 (my aircraft of choice)
Now, for those of you asking how to land the f 16 let me say that to fly it like a proper airplane takes a lot of patience, concentration, and no hesitancy.
now for those still interested, please make sure u have a lot of time and distance still betweenyou and the runway. Also, make sure that you know what the runway vectors are or have an idea of where the line you need to go down is. When coming into an airport that I am unfamiliar with, I always do some prep work studying the area in terms of flying. I mark the ends of runways with paths (If you are a beginner, markers may be used but I highly recommend PATHS because they give you both the where the touchdown point of the runway is along with the direction of the runway making it easier for the runway to line up with your plane.) these can be added by clicking the top left icon htat says “Add” then by clicking “path.” now, i suggest you use a long runway at a major airport for obvious reasons that a longer runway will leave more room for tiny errors, or at least more than a short runway can. Now, before even start the flight, choose the runway you want to land at and mark two paths per runway. For each path set one end of the line at the place where you are supposed to touchdown (The ends with big white stripes) and set the other point AWAY from the runway out in the direction of travel on the runway. (AIrports will usually have A straight line of lights or arrows going out from the runway. Set the other point of your path as far as possible where the lights or arrows begin because the longer the line is, the easier the direction of the runway will be to find when you are lining up the aircraft.
Now, Down to the actual flying. If you know how to manipulate your starting point so that you are at an altitude and facing the horizon in stead of the ground, then it willl be easier to learn from there. if not, take off normally and get to at least 5ooo feet in level flight. Now, coordinate your aircraft so that you are a couple miles away from your runway but are lined up so that you dont have to turn to land. (If you used PATHS, they are a godsend during this part) get your gear down now because when you are coming into final approach you will not have the time to lower gear.
NOW I AM PUTTING THIS PART IN CAPS BECAUSE THIS IS THE ESSENCE OF A SUCCESSFUL F16 LANDING YOU POSITION YOURSELF EITHER BY LOWERING OR RAISING YOUR ALTITUDE SO THAT THE END OF THE RUNWAY WHERE YOU WANT TO LAND IS AT THREE DEGREES BELOW YOUR HORIZON. nOW, IF YOU UNDERSTAND THIS IT MIGHT SEEM A LITTLE STRANGE THAT YOU ARE LANDING AT SUCH A SHALLOW ANGLE, REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE IN A VERY FAST MOVING JET AND YOUR STALL OR (FINAL) SPEED IS STILL GOING TO BE VERY FAST AND THAT TO NOT CRASH ON IMPACT, YOU MUST COME IN VERY SHALLOW AND SMOOTH.
Now, after you have done all this, there is soemthing else that you need to understand about GE flight sim physics YOUR FLAPS DO NOT MAKE FALL TO THE GROUND. In the flight sim, your flaps trade lift for speed. so that if you set flaps at 100%, you will actually acheive more lift until your speed falls to stall levels and you crash altogether. IN a perfect landing, your planes stalls at the exact moment you hit the runway, however, the plane will tolerate a wide range of pseeds as long as the landing is SMOOTH. Ok so in final descent when you feel that your close enough, gradually set your flaps higher and higher compensating with an increase in thrust each time but still reducing your air speed. THis is why landing is hard, it is a balancing act. on final approach, I am making sure to keep the runway at 3 degress of the “real mark” (that is the upside down T sign NOT the ^ sign.) one hand should be on your mose making slight adjustments in pitch and keeping the wings level. The other hand should be on the thrust and flap controls since they are in proximity. Now, the first time you do this, you will probably crash but once you get this balancing act down, it will become very routine. Just glide the plane smoothly to the end of the runway and put it down softly.
Now here are the hard numbers and tips:
Remember the 3 Degree rule of the upside down T
begin fnial approach at 5,000 feet above runway altitued (BE CAREFUL SINCE GROUND ALTITUDE IS NOT SHOWN ON YOUR CONTROL PANEL) for example in Denver, begin final approach at 10000 feet.
At the beginning of final approach, you should be lined up with the runway, gears down, and flaps at 40 degrees, your speed should be above 28-0 knots but SLOWLY descreasing.
The 100% flaps should be used only at the very and top prevent a speed stall before you are close to the ground.
For the F16, a good conventional landing speed should be 160-170 knots. In an unusual or awkward landing try to achieve a landing speed of 200 knots if the runway allows. And in a very short runway the stall speed when you hit the runway should be around 120-150 knots. Note: runways shorter than a mile located in rural airports should not be attempted until you have a very firm grasp of both the aricraft and have studied the runway.
(Remember if a short runway seems hard to land in because oyu keep crashing, try it from the other side or at another time. THere isnt a runway in the world i Havent been able to land at with practice.)
NTO (normal take off) procedure
For beginners, simply set your flasp at 40% (jsut trust me) and put you thrust at full power. if you put your mouse at the very bottom, you should acheive lift at around 210 knots with plenty of runway to sparea t any major airport
STO (short take off) procedure
Experts only, press the brake buttons like you would at landing, and the set maximum thrust WHILE STILL HOLDING BRAKES. once you hit fifty knots, let go of brakes and pray to god you get speed. Once you hit exactly 155 knots, quickly set your flaps to 100% (this shoudl give you enough lift if you put the mouse on the very bottom.) If you get the timing right, you should be in comfortable air just turn down flaps raise gear, and fly off in the big blue sky.
OH, and make sure you dont stall too high before you hit mother earth xD
Happy Jetting!

idk whats going on, it doesnt let me enter the flight simulator. when i press cntrl+alt+A it just rotates the screen. but i dont enter flight mode =(
does anyone know how to fix this? or know what the problem is?

Similar to what Jim said above, I’ve already spent some time using the GE flight simulator and I have also already flown some transcontinental and tranpacific and transatlantic flights on GE.
trivia: what I’ve observed is that the true flight times are halved in GE when you fly at around 510-520 knots (which is typically the cruising speed of jetliners. Eg: an 12-hour transpacific flight would take about 6 hrs to complete in GE.
I would also like to share here the “landing manual” which I have compiled and have followed in each of my flights. Ever since I followed it, I never crash landed except for one time wherein I only forgot to deploy the gears.
How to land
>Make final approach from rwy threshold (rwy end) at 12-36kms.
**Use the line tool to draw guidelines on the map before running the flight simulator**
>Reduce speed to 200-220kts
>Establish DESCENT RATE within -500 ft/min to -900 ft/min.
>Assign height references for 12,24, and 36 km marks from the rwy end
– at 36km from rwy end ~ you should fly at 6000ft
– at 24km from rwy end ~ 4000ft
– at 12km from rwy end ~ 2000ft
**Deviate slightly from references, if necessary. Use “add placemarks” buttons to mark the said distances frm the rwy end**
>Deploy gears at 2000-3500ft.
>Maintain nose angle between 0-5.
>At 1500-2000ft, establish descent rate of -600 to -800 ft/min. Reduce speed to 150-170kts. *170kts is seen as most appropriate
>At 1000ft: 6km distance from threshold, 150-170kts speed, and 0-10 degree nose angle
>Upon entering rwy threshold, establish nose angle value between 0-10 degrees.
>Make sure the aircraft speed is above 150kts.
>Maintain descent rate of 700-1100 ft/min
Hope this helps..=D

Great advices mate. I just started this on 2015, but your advice is timeless. My question is, whats the max speed of the f16? I can`t take it over 650ish above 25 000ft. id like to fly high and fast, but i cant, I do accelerate going down, but good speeds (750 to 900 nots) are only achievable at about 15 to 25 000 ft.

I use a Saitek yoke and quadrant for GE flight sim. The yoke controls for flaps and breaking don’t work–have to resort to keyboard controls, making landing difficult. Middle (blue) lever on quadrant controls the rudder. But here’s the larger problem. If I connect Saitek pedals to yoke or directly into computer USB port Google Earth always crashes. Any suggestions on how to get pedals to work in GE flight sim?
Another problem: unless you use the mouse every minute or so, monitor goes blank and the only way to get it back is clicking the mouse, during which time the plane is likely to spiral.

This simulator feature really rules!!! Love it
It worked out fine for me for the first few tries at it.
My first problem I encountered was that after a couple of turns at it, and switching monitors to a larger one(a LCD TV in fact!!!), part of the throttle\aileron\elevator\rudder position display box was beneath the screen, which meant that I couldn’t see the aileron’s position. Any suggestions?

I also encountered that problem with a fairly large flat screen computer monitor. There isn’t much to be done, I think, except to press the “alt+arrow up/arrow down” to make the view of the screen either go up or down a little. Doing so would enable you to see them, although your view ahead would be somewhat tilted.

regarding the problem that Joe, Henry and Jim talked about: “Saitek AV8R-01 is connected GE stops and an error comes up.”
When I got the Saitek AV8R-01 out of the box and plugged the USB connector into the computer, the joystick worked great without problems. However, after loading the Saitek software and configuring the controller to operate the flaps and gear, Google earth would crash as soon as I selected the “start flight” button. I cleared the profile, deleted the software and assumed that I had the controller back to the default settings, but the problem still persists. Anybody have any ideas?

How to land:
Put the arrow thingy just near -5
Slow down (Page Down) half
Press the F keyboard button until on the screen it says flaps 100%
Press G and the landing gear will turn on
Keep that arrow near -5!
Slow down FULLY
Keep it near -5
DO NOT press G again.
When your plane hits the ground and starts rolling just go do something for say 5 mins then check on the plane it should of stopped moving.
Remember, this takes practice!
From, Anonomyous
P.S NEVER TURN THE LANDING GEAR OFF EVEN WHEN YOUVE STOPPED

How to stop a plane
Press and hold the comma and period button until you stop and when it’s stop. You can taxi to the gate to have a flight come on
From, Nameless
P.S. Never leave your plane having decreasing speed slowy due to make a overrun.

How to take off with the both aircrafts on flight simulator:
1. Push the throttle to full by pressing the PageDown key.
2. If you don’t want to have flaps on the aircraft. For the F16 when the plane reaches 200 knots, you can press the down key to let the elevator tabs go for take off.
3. Press F until it says flaps 100% if you want.
4. Now you are flying.
From, Nameless
P.S. Do NOT let the plane increasing speed and not lifting off from the runway.

I have done small flights with the F16 but cant go that fast so any longer flights take ages!
What is the fastest you can get the F16 on a level trajectory? And whats this afterburner thingy, Does it exist, and how do you use it?

I cannot take off on the flight simulator. I make it so the mouse is the cross-hair +. I hold down the page up button. Nothing happens. Is there something I’m doing wrong? Do I need to do something different on a mac?

I fly this sim on a Mac and use the mouse for a joystick. Lots of success so far. HUGE QUESTION: I have many hours flying model airplanes so I really understand flight and flight control. Moving the mouse to the left makes the plane role right????. This CAN NOT be correct. Up and down is correct. Can someone explain this and suggest a fix.

The mouse uses the same cfg file as the keyboard and left should bank left.
What happens when you use the left/right arrow keys? If it’s the same, maybe the cfg file needs to be changed for the Mac. It works fine on my PC trackball.

I have a Saitek P3200 Rumble with will not work with Flight Simulator. Everytime you try and run from tools or Ctrl A+A it crashes. If I untick the joystick enable it works but obviously without the gampad working.
Are there any fixes for this? I have the latest drivers installed.

One of the config files has the colour and width of the lines displayed. You could look in the folder in the path below for the file and edit the parameters and see how you go. There’s one each for the SR22 and F16. Make a copy of the files before editing and note the original values in case you need to back up.
C:\Program Files\Google\GoogleEarth\res\flightsim\hud

Triple, to get the heading to display you either need to change your screen resolution or alter the values in the cfg file to bring it lower down on the screen. It should be in:
C:\Program Files\Google\GoogleEarth\res\flightsim\hud
There is a cfg for each of the aircraft. Keep a copy of the original in case you botch things up but it’s a lot of fun customising the placement of the various elements displayed. There are examples in this or some of the other Fsim threads.

Does anyone know how to turn of the night sky when doing loops? I used to see the sun when pointing straight up in the middle of a loop, but now it briefly changes to night then back to daytime at the bottom of the loop.
Thank You

Hello, one small tip for flight simulator to go with enabling buildings in flight simulator, whilst there enable weather, but only the clouds disable radar and information otherwise it looks wierd, you can also enable the roads if you want to use it as an information tool as well as being fun

ok i downloaded the bf 106 plane and now it wont get off my screen ive tried deleting it and everything it wont go away ive trying deleting google earth and downloading it again it wont go away help me get this off…..
-will

Hello:
I am wondering if anyone has come up with a fix or solution to enable the use of the Saitek AV8R-01 with GE Flight Simulator? It is a nice stick and a great flight and I’d like to use them together, but like others in this forum GEFS shuts down instantly when this joystick is enabled.
Any help or information would be much appreciated.
Thank You,
Jesse

I just accidentally found the coolest tool for flight sim. If you create a route in Street Atlas and export as a gpx, when you open it in GE it is useless as a automobile route because it just puts a straight line from point to point in GE. But, this straight line is a perfect flight path for flight sim to use from airport to airport.

The F16 has a suspension that an all terrain vihicle would envy. It makes it possible to take off in both directions from (the roller coaster) Courchevel aiport in France. You must pull your wheels up immidiatly and in the uphill direction wait untill you are over a canyon. What I dont know is why my speed is limited to around 350 knots unless losing altitude.

You can display an image to the left,right or flying ahead, or a tail mounted camera image, in the same way as the cockpit images. Side on images are easy to find on the web and work fine but images of a plane flying ahead are harder to find.
I captured some tail mounted camera images from PVR recordings of the Redbull air races and use them including various aircraft and helicopters from documentary series. HD recordings are best.
You need something like KMLScreenOverlayMaker to create the KML file to display the views you want to use. It’s easy to do and there is info on doing it in other FS threads here on Google Earth Blog.

To land in the SR22:
– Press “F” to lower the flaps to 100%
– Begin gently pulling the nose up and start slowly decreasing your speed
– Keep the nose up at all times so you don’t crash
– When you touch the ground with your rear wheels, gently bring the nose down
– Hold the throttle down key (Page Down) and both comma and period- these are the brakes.
Note that the SR22 may easily skid out of control during landings. It’s easier just to accept that you’re going to either miss the runway altogether, or skid off, or over-run it. I actually just land wherever I can.
The F-16 IS much harder. It’s very hard to land in it.
Cool Feature: Gently glide into the water if you can. If you’re lucky, you can go UNDERWATER. Just make sure you don’t hit the purple seabed.

The best trick for me has been to keep the rudder indicator (inverted T) as close to being on top of the start of the runway as possible. From a long way off you’ll see it controls your descent and you’ll land right on the mark

I modded the f 16 using the flightsim/aircraft/f16.acf
File changed fmax to990e99 and went 5500 kts
If any of you guys want o use a more realistic flight
Sim I suggest trying the free one at flightgear.org.
I still like the feature on google earth

How could i change the setting so buttons 2345 on my logitech attack 3 joystick controled the looking direction, 10,11 controlled flaps, 1 centered everything, and 8, 9 controlled brakes with 7 controlling gear?
if someone cold tell me how to do it or edit the codes themselves i would be much obliged
Thanks
Richard

Suddenly the font and graphic of the instruments HUD (heads up display) of my ‘Google Flight Simulator’ became too big and the bars that show throttle, rudder, elevator (on the bottom left)… just disappeared. It only shows flaps % and gear. Seems like I zoomed in the screen during GFS! Probably I hit a key or combination that caused it but I’m not sure. I’m unable to go back the way it was before. Any help there?

Not trying to put anybody on but this blog carries a name that resembles to belong to Google Earth (Corporation), which I think, is one of the most amazing tools available to us thru the internet. But I see that most of the comments and question posted here goes blank, without any answer! We patronize the blog and we need some feedback. The answers or comments could be posted in a link inside the same box of the pertaining question. It would be great, because some people do have the same doubts and wouldn’t need to right it again. The blog would have more hits and the publicity exposed on the page too. The way it is now it is a waste of time to come here. No wonder the visits to the page are a few of what it was in the beginning. Thanks!

Landing the SR22
Airport setup:
Place a pushpin in the center of the runway named: Airport name, Runway headings, Airport elevation, & runway length. EX Orlando 18-36 EL119 >11 (greater than 11,000 feet)
Using the ruler path, outline the runway and name it: Airport name, Runway headings.
SR22 Approach:
Straight in approach to the airport. Level flight at about 2000′ AGL. When the airport marker crosses the -5 line on the HUD, kill the power. Hold the nose on the horizon until the airspeed drops to about 110kts. Lower the nose to the -5 line on the HUD. Hold the nose between the airport marker and the -5 line on the HUD. At 1000′ AGL lower the flaps one click per second holding the nose in place. As the end of the runway gets closer hold the nose halfway between the end of the runway and the marker. Flare as you cross the end of the runway but do not raise the nose above the far end of the runway.
This approach works for all AGL altitudes up to 6 or 7 thousand feet.

Landing the SR22
Airport setup:
Place a pushpin at the midpoint of the runway, centered on the runway. Name it: Airport name, Runway headings, Airport elevation, & runway length. EX San Angelo 14-32 EL157 3255 (Below 4000′ you need to know the exact length) Using the ruler path, outline the runway and name it: Airport name, Runway headings.
SR22 Pattern Approach:
Approach the airport in level flight at about 2000′ AGL toward the airport marker. When the marker crosses the -10 line on the HUD make a standard right (or left) turn to the runway heading maintaining altitude. Once on the heading, kill the power. Lower the nose to the -5 line on the HUD and hold it there until the altitude reaches 1000′ AGL. Then power on 4 clicks, level out and make a standard left (or right) turn to the reverse runway heading. Watch for the runway as you complete the turn. Make alignment corrections as needed for runway alignment. Kill the power when the marker crosses the -5 line on the HUD. Lower the nose to the -5 line on the HUD. Hold the nose between the airport marker and the -5 line on the HUD. Lower the flaps one click per second holding the nose in place. As the end of the runway gets closer hold the nose halfway between the end of the runway and the marker. Flare as you cross the end of the runway but do not raise the nose above the far end of the runway.

Standard turn:
Bank the SR22 to the third mark (the long one) on the bank indicator on the HUD and hold it there, maintaining the plane’s attitude, until 10 degrees before your desired compass heading. Then roll out to your desired compass heading.

joao neto,
The throttle/rudder indicators disappeared with the latest upgrade of GEFS. I wrote to the Google Earth people and they gave me a URL to back level GEFS. I guess this is the new display. At any rate, 4 throttle clicks from full off or 4 clicks from full on will get you to about normal, 135Kts.

Re the Q. Any sound available?. I have added sound as follows. You need a program called ‘Enviro’ (Freeware from the net. It works with FS9) It contains audio boxes which can be mapped to desktop buttons. Copy one of the ‘wav’ files from, say, the Cessna 172, into one of the spare boxes and map a button to it. Same can be done for a Jet sound. The sound is the same all the time, of course, i.e. no accelleration, but, better than nothing. Hope this helps. Ted

The throttle/rudder indicators vanished on your own active improve of GEFS. I circulated with your Google Planet people and so they typically filled myself on a Address to back level GEFS. I guess this might be new program. No less than, 4 restrict clicks from rich in or 4 clicks from perfect probably get you to surely regarding typical, 135Kts.

When approaching an airport at any altitude: When the -5 degree line on the HUD crosses the runway midpoint, you can kill the power and glide to the runway. No need for pushpin markers. Also outlining the runway with the ruler “Path” will make it easier to land on the runway.

Bank the SR22 to the third mark (the long one) on the bank indicator on the HUD and hold it there, maintaining the plane’s attitude, until 10 degrees before your desired compass heading. Then roll out to your desired compass heading.

Landing the F-16
Approx 10 miles from destination airport:
Approach @ 300kts @ 3,000 AGL, 1 click of power & 40% flap, lined up with runway
Maintain 300kts
When the runway near end crosses the -5 attitude bar,
kill power, add full flaps (one click per second)
(Pure glider at this time)
Establish and Maintain a -5 degree decent or runway midpoint alignment
Maintain runway alignment
Gear down at 250kts
VSI will be -2600 to -3600 during decent
Flare as you cross runway near end
(not more that -500VSI at touchdown)
Move chevron to runway far end and land

The flight simulator does not work for me in firefox 40.0.3 i have google earth installed correctly and everything is working, but the simulator freezes immediately when i open it. i have windows ten. plz help!

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